With a guidebook introduction of 'One of the best mountain scrambles in Scotland' and a three-star rating, a traverse of the Forcan Ridge has been high on my list of things to do while we are in this area of the Highlands. Today looked like our best bet for appropriate conditions for crossing the knife-edge ridge with the wind speed low and the forecast promising a bright afternoon. As it turned out, we forgot to translate the Scottish weather forecast, as this was as good as the 'bright afternoon' got and for a while, it was considerably less bright! Nevertheless, we succeeded in our quest...
On the short drive to Glen Shiel, we stopped to look (and listen) to the passing formation of geese. It was really cool to watch and see how well lined up they were to work together.
On approaching the ridge, we got a tantalizing glimpse, but despite expectations of the contrary, it never really revealed itself. Apart from the dampness of being inside a cloud, it didn't actually rain though until we were descending and there was not a breath of wind all day, so pretty good conditions for Scotland in October I guess.
The scale of the mountains are so much bigger than back home in Wales - just getting to the base of the climb would be a respectable hike elsewhere! Unsurprisingly, we were the only humans for many many miles....
We don't have any photos of us on the ridge up to the 963m peak of Sgurr nan Forcan (a Munro in fact!), but to give you an idea of the terrain, here's a snapshot from part way along the ridge from the guidebook. It's never too technically tricky, but you really don't want to fall off it!
From the summit of Sgurr nan Forcan (963m), it's possible to either carry on scrambling onto the next (slightly higher) peak called The Saddle (1001m) or break out left and descend the broad grassy southern spur. With conditions only getting worse, after a summit high-five, we opted for the latter. An hour or so later as we were walking away, we got a brief glimpse of where we'd been!
We were glad to have done a classic route, even if the conditions were sub-par.
All that remained was to make the long march back to Glen Sheil. Every now and then, it looked like it might clear up, but by the time we were back at the van, it was pretty clear which way the rest of the day was going to go.
We got our boots off about ten minutes before the proper rain started up.
We drove through some heavy down pours, but back at the loft, things began to mellow out again. We had a celebratory hot drink in the dormer looking out at the loch. There was not a breath of wind and the tide was far out.
With only a few minutes of daylight left, I decided to make use of the mirror calm conditions and took the paddleboard for a short journey around the coast from the house. The water was so clear and still, it was like snorkelling - just much warmer! It was soon almost dark and after watching a heron close up, I returned to the shore and went straight into a hot shower. Such luxury and a fabulous way to finish a fabulous day.
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